To suggest white poppies are an insult (Letters, November 2) is to fail to understand the message they seek to convey.

Like the red poppy, the white poppy marks the remembrance of the dead but also looks to the future. Is it so wrong, in addition, to promote world peace as opposed to war and militarism? Is not peace a noble vision worth celebrating?

To condemn the red poppy is wrong and insensitive, but we must consider its meaning, our intentions and its connotation. The red poppy looks, rightly, to the past but with perceived links to the monarchy, church, Whitehall and the Establishment.

Brendon C Fletcher,

Thomas Street, York.